Did Donald Glover Inspire the New Spider-Man?

Remember back in June of last year, when Donald Glover was lobbying hard for the chance to audition for the starring role in Marc Webb’s Spider-Man reboot? A lot of comic book fans thought the idea of a non-white Spider-Man was totally out of the question. Perhaps we should take it as a sign of progress then that as Splitsider reports, Miles Morales, a new half-black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man will make his debut tomorrow in Marvel’s Ultimate Fallout #4. “What you have is a Spider-Man for the 21st century who’s reflective of our culture and diversity,” his creator Brian Michael Bendis told USA Today. “We think that readers will fall in love with Miles Morales the same way they fell in love with Peter Parker.”

While Bendis says Glover’s campaign did not directly inspire the new character, he was happy when he spotted the Community actor wearing Spidey pajamas in the show’s season premiere last fall. “He looked fantastic! I saw him in the costume and thought, ‘I would like to read that book.’ So I was glad I was writing that book.” Judging from the image of Morales above, we’d say there’s more than a slight resemblance between the two — suggesting that perhaps Glover had more influence than Bendis even realizes. What do you think?